Internet light blinking red / flashing red twice before a short pause

[K00la]

So yesterday (12th May 2022) I had engineers come to install full fibre as I upgraded my vodafone broadband from superfast2 (70 mbps) to gigafast (910 mbps).

I'll skip over the fact that the engineer drilled over a gas pipe causing a leakage to the actual issue regarding the broadband.

Once the engineers completed the installation, the connection was up and running fine... for a short while.

I had to unplug the black modem / ONT (I believe it's called) when the plumber came to fix the leaked gas pipe, since he had to break the wall and I didn't want dust to get inside the modem (although some did).

So I unplugged it to make it easier for the plumber to weld the hole in the gas pipe. 

After he left, I replugged the modem, and reconnected it to my router.

All the 4 lights on the modem turn green as normal.

On my router, the power light is solid white, the wifi is solid white but the internet light keeps blinking red (blinks red twice fast before a short pause (Photo attached).

Any idea what this means?

I contacted support and they promised me the internet will be back to normal in the morning of next day (today)... spoilers: it hasn't lol.

I've tried resetting the router, resetting the modem, prayed to God, unplugged and replugged all the cables, switched it off for 5 mins and switched back on, prayed to God again, moved the power plug from mains to an extension lead and vice versa... still nothing.

It's been over 24 hours since there is no connection.

I've got exams coming soon, so really need the internet for revision and studying.

On my router, the only 2 cables attached are the power plug (connected to an extension lead) and an ethernet cable (from the modem) in the WAN slot of the router.

These are correct, right?

Before I had an internet cable from the telephone socket, but I assume this has been replaced by the WAN, as the WAN connection wasn't there when I had superfast 2.

When I connect to the wifi on my devices, I see No Internet Connection. If I press on the Reconnect button, nothing happens (screenshot attached).

I've contacted support this morning once again, and they told me that my connection will be back up in 24 - 48 hours, same thing they said to me yesterday.

Anyone have a solution to the red twice-blinking light on the router?

Getting a bit desperate here.

 

[Jayach]

I believe it means the router isn't authenticating to Vodafone.

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@K00la wrote:

All the 4 lights on the modem turn green as normal.

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Are you on Openreach or CityFibre? What lights are lit on the ONT?

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@K00la wrote:

I had to unplug the black modem / ONT (I believe it's called) when the plumber came to fix the leaked gas pipe, since he had to break the wall and I didn't want dust to get inside the modem (although some did).

So I unplugged it to make it easier for the plumber to weld the hole in the gas pipe. 

After he left, I replugged the modem, and reconnected it to my router.

Are you saying you disconnected the fibre from the ONT, or did you just remove the power plug?

[K00la]

CityFibre I believe.

These are the only 4 lights on the ONT.

Power, Broadband, Service, Ethernet. (Picture attached).

How do I fix the fact that the router isn't authenticated with Vodafone? What does that even mean?

Is there an issue with the router? The work the engineers did? Or is it a simple click that Vodafone needs to do to authenticate my router?

 

[Jayach]

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@K00la wrote:

How do I fix the fact that the router isn't authenticated with Vodafone? What does that even mean?

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Authentication is the process by which your router is recognised by Vodafone as having permission to connect,

That means the router and the authentication servers at Vodafone establish a valid communication path. (trying to simplify it here)

Any breakdown in that will result in not being authenticated. With the information we have here it isn't possible to establish exactly what is going wrong.

All you can do is make sure the cables are securely connected, the rest is up to Vodafone.

[K00la]

I see, thanks for clearing up what that means.

I guess this is also what they mean when they say that connections will resume by midnight, they're trying to authenticate the router?

But thanks again, we rely so much on Internet Connections nowdays, that the lack of it is painfully stressful haha! My studies are currently on hold, but I'm using mobile data wherever I can.

[K00la]

By disconnecting the ONT I meant I unplugged the 3 cables (power plug, GPON cable, and ethernet cable),  so that when the plumber broke the wall to fix the gas pipe, the debris from the wall wouldn't go inside the router.

(the 3 cables on the pic attached).

[Jayach]

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@K00la wrote:

By disconnecting the ONT I meant I unplugged the 3 cables (power plug, GPON cable, and ethernet cable), 

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If the GPON cable is the fibre, that is not supposed to be disconnected, any dust (even a tiny spec) can cause problems. I suspect that may be the problem, although I would expect the lights to reflect that there is a problem. (I'm not familiar with the Cityfibre ONT). Were there definitely all 4 lit before?

[K00la]

I had to disconnect the GPON fibre because the way the engineers installed this cable it cannot be moved. It's attached on the wall so movement of the ONT with this cable attached is really limited.

Before (when it was briefly working), yep, all 4 lights were on, I remember the engineer showing it to me.

[Jayach]

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@K00la wrote:

I had to disconnect the GPON fibre because the way the engineers installed this cable it cannot be moved. It's attached on the wall so movement of the ONT with this cable attached is really limited.

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That's because it's not supposed to be moved.

[Jayach]

The fact that the LEDs on the ONT are all green tends to say the fibre connection is good. That leaves the Vodafone router as the possibly problem. Make sure the Ethernet cable is fully secured in both the ONT and WAN sockets on the router, then try a factory reset on the router by holding in the reset button for at least 10 seconds.